About 75 million American children
and teens set off for school this morning. We know eating
breakfast improves their school performance and overall
nutrition.

Nevertheless,
about 15 percent of these children failed to eat breakfast;
ten percent ate breakfast at school, but the remainder
ate at home or grabbed something on the way. Whether
a bowl of cornflakes or an Egg McMuffin, chances are
those who did eat chose something tasty, cheap and ready
to eat almost instantly this morning, thanks to the
ingenuity of the processed food industry.

So why do processed
foods have such a bad reputation? Unsweetened, fortified
cereal is truly miraculous: it is easy to make, easy
to eat and comfortingly consistent. Individual cornflakes
may be as unique as snowflakes, but the golden contents
of each box taste the same in Grand Rapids, Great Neck
or Little Rock.

That Egg McMuffin
is another matter. It is processed perfection too. The
Canadian bacon is always precisely circular; the cheese
brightly hued. Stuffed with fat, salt and inscrutable
additives, a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich squats
on the line between food and junk food. No one except
the fast-food industry doubts that eating their processed
food is unhealthy, perhaps deadly.

Yet culinary
historians such as Rachel Laudan correctly point out
that in the past, it was unprocessed
foods that were dangerous—they spoiled,
rotted and might be downright poisonous. Instead, a
larder full of processed foods meant freedom from monotony
and hunger.

Milled grain,
cured meats, aged cheeses, preserved fruits, smoked
fish and salted vegetables meant good nutrition during
long winters and pest-free food to last until the next
harvest.

Public health
experts remind us that in the recent past some Americans
had too little processed food to eat, not too much.
Poor and isolated people suffered from deficiency diseases
like pellagra and goiter because they lacked access
to essential nutrients. Fortified and enriched foods
combined with improved food distribution systems (as
well as government supports like food stamp programs)
eradicated these diseases and remain essential to Americans’
nutrition. *2

Still, somewhere
along the way, the culinary chemists became too good
for our good. Breaking down corn kernels, for example,
generated corn meal, then corn oil, corn starch, and
corn syrup.

Further alchemy
yielded real gold: ingredients that would dramatically
transform the American diet. Potent sweeteners like
high-fructose corn syrup and shelf-stable fats like
partially hydrogenated oil made tasty crackers and chips,
beverages and biscuits that would stay that way for
years and cost next to nothing.

Cheap, tasty
food for all seems like a fabulous technical achievement.
Yet critics complain that food processing often benefits
the manufacturer first, not the consumer. Take trans
fats, the fat additive now linked to higher levels of
blood cholesterol and consequently heart disease. Manufacturers
added trans fats to their products because it made them
less perishable, but when health officials and consumer
advocates complained (and hurt sales), they swiftly
removed them.

Added salt,
added sugars and added fats make food taste good, prompting
purchases, even though energy-dense foods often lack
proportional amounts of vitamins, minerals and other
necessary nutrients found in whole foods. Are Frosted
Flakes the same thing as cornflakes? Certainly not.

We don’t
think twice now about even utterly artificial foods,
but we should. “To trace the origins of Froot
Loops that have no fruits, and chocolate creme pies
that have neither cream nor chocolate would defy most
adults” let alone children, writes nutritionist
and critic Joan Gussow. *3

You might say
we have a two-tiered food system: one level for people
who can afford to buy fresh fruit, fresh fish, and fresh
cream and another for people who can afford processed
substitutes.

Low-income
Americans tend to eat high-calorie, processed foods
because they are relatively cheap compared to fresh
foods. A recent study published in the American Journal
for Clinical Nutrition linked obesity, fat and sugar
consumption and the low cost of such “energy-dense”
foods: fattening foods are cheaper. *4

The freshest
foods are now luxury foods. Elite restaurants no longer
serve caviar or choucroute garni to demonstrate their
culinary sophistication. Instead, they offer discerning
customers heirloom vegetables picked that morning or
day-boat scallops just plucked from their shells. These
days, we consider utterly unadulterated food to be both
precious and good for us.

So for people
who can afford to, rejecting so-called convenience foods
in favor of minimally processed or whole foods is understandably
attractive. They seek out stone-ground grains and eschew
canned vegetables for fresh. The expansion of the upscale
WholeFoods supermarket chain signals the idea’s
broad appeal: brown rice isn’t just for the macrobiotic
crowd anymore. WholeFoods supermarkets and a multitude
of similar outlets offer high-quality food without sacrificing
convenience. It’s easy to enjoy brown rice sushi
or wheat berry salad if you don’t have to prepare
it yourself.

Advocates intent
on transforming school meal programs want to make such
fresh, minimally processed food the foundation of every
school meal, not the exception. *5

Serving processed,
reheated food to children shows they are undervalued.
We have been unwilling to invest in the cooks, equipment
and ingredients needed to provide fresh food for them.

The school
meal is typically a Hobbesian experience: “Nasty,
brutish and short” says Janet Poppendieck, a Hunter
College professor who studies school meals programs.
We must transform it into something better. But change
is slow and may not reach this generation in time. Even
outstanding initiatives like SchoolFood Plus, a partnership
between the advocacy group FoodChange and the New York
City school system, must move slowly because staff training
and equipment costs limit growth to just a handful of
schools each year. Reproducing The Edible Schoolyard,
the Berkeley program made famous by Alice Waters, in
every schoolyard is laudable, but challenging.

Such programs
are the gold standard, but myopic focus on adding whole
foods, organic foods, or even local foods to school
meals is a distraction. We don’t need to bridge
the gap between an Egg McMuffin and that brown rice
sushi. Instead, we need to work toward a more equitable
food system that offers tasty, nutritious and convenient
food for all children and adults. Is the answer as simple
as a bowl of cornflakes? Let the debate begin.

The Issue:
Eating whole foods, local foods, and sustainable foods
are admirable goals. But we love tasty, cheap and convenient
food. What’s so bad about processed food?

The Summary:
All processed food isn’t junk food. Remember olive
oil, wheat bread and soy sauce are processed foods.
Food processing has long been essential for a safe,
nutritious and dependable food supply. Feeding all Americans
fresh, whole foods is unrealistic. Instead, we need
a more equitable food system that offers tasty, nutritious
and convenient food for all children and adults; processed
food will be part of the solution.